Iran, Egypt FMs call for regional cooperation, urgent support for Palestine

The top diplomats of Iran and Egypt have stressed the need to boost regional cooperation to prevent further escalation of tensions and to support the war-stricken people of Palestine.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdel Aaty held a meeting in Egypt’s capital of Cairo on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 21st Council of Foreign Ministers meeting of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation.

Araghchi and Aaty discussed the latest developments in the region, particularly the expansion of Israel's aggression and crimes from Gaza and Lebanon to Syria, and urged convergence among key regional countries, including Iran and Egypt, to stop the regime’s atrocities.

They called for the continuation of efforts to end Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians and send immediate aid to the defenseless people in the Gaza Strip.

Addressing the 21st Session of the Council of Ministers of D-8, Araghchi deplored the international community’s abject failure to stop the Israeli regime’s violations amid untrammeled support provided to Tel Aviv by the United States, its biggest ally.

“The international community has embarrassingly failed to stop acts of aggression, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the Zionist regime,” he said.

World has ‘embarrassingly failed to stop Israel amid incessant US support’: FM

Iran deplores the international community’s abject failure to stop the Israeli regime’s violations amid untrammeled support provided for Tel Aviv by the US, its biggest ally.

At least 45,097 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed with 107,244 others injured in the genocidal war that began after the retaliatory operation - the Al-Aqsa Flood - staged by Gaza’s resistance movements on October 7, 2023 in response to the regime’s decades of deadly occupation and aggression against Palestinians.

The US, Israel’s number one ally and main supporter, has blocked efforts by the UN aimed at stopping the Gaza war.

In the past year alone, Washington has vetoed four Security Council resolutions calling for a Gaza ceasefire.

The top Iranian and Egyptian diplomats further pointed to the important and effective position of the two countries in the region and the Muslim world and stressed the importance of improving cooperation among the D-8 member states to activate the organization’s capacities in the economic sector.

They also discussed issues of common interest.

Araghchi hailed Egypt’s successful hosting of the D-8 foreign ministerial meeting and expressed hope that the organization’s summit would also lead to results serving the interests of developing Muslim countries.

The Iranian foreign minister expressed hope that Egypt would play an influential role in activating the D-8 during its presidency over the body and said Tehran is ready to help Cairo toward that goal.

The D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as Developing-8, is an organization for developing cooperation among Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Cairo on Wednesday to take part in the D-8 summit on Thursday. It is the first visit by an Iranian president to Egypt in 11 years.

Egypt severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980, as shifts widened between the two following the Islamic Revolution in Iran and Egypt’s recognition of Israel. The move came after Egypt welcomed the deposed US-backed Pahlavi ruler.

However, since Egypt’s longtime strongman Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a popular uprising in 2011, there has been a warming of relations between Iran and Egypt.

In recent years, particularly amid the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, diplomatic contacts between the two countries have intensified as Egypt has tried to play a mediating role.

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